Tears flow for Jimmies

November 18, 2006|STEVE LOWE Tribune Correspondent

ELKHART -- Adam Sharpe doubled over in anguish on the Jimtown sideline Friday night. It was not a physical injury that caused his pain. The hometown scoreboard bore the reason for his grief. Sharpe, a senior on Jimtown's defending Class 2-A state champion football team, walked off the field for the last time. Fort Wayne Harding saw to that, denying the Jimmies a return to the RCA Dome with an impressive 28-0 semistate victory. Harding dominated the second half, hardly allowing No. 7 Jimtown to touch the ball after half-time. The Hawks controlled the clock for 18 of the 24 minutes in the second half and broke the game open with 21 fourth quarter points. Sharpe, the son of coach Bill Sharpe, couldn't find the words through his tears to describe the feeling of the worst home loss in his father's 27 years of coaching Jimtown football, but fellow senior James Byers tried. "It's indescribable," said Byers, a linebacker and the team's leading tackler this season. "It hurts." Harding (11-3) qualified for its second trip to the 2-A state championship game and its first since 2003. The Hawks will play the winner of today's other semistate game between No. 3 North Putnam (13-0) and No. 8 Southridge (11-2). The Jimmies, who were shutout for the first time since 1999, saw their season end at 11-3. Freshman tailback Rod Smith, a 6-foot-2, 197-pound 14-year old who rushed for over 1,600 yards this season, gained 118 to help the Hawks control the clock. Jimtown punted away its first possession of the third quarter, 1:48 after halftime. That was the last time the Jimmies possessed the ball until the fourth quarter. Harding mounted an impressive 18-play drive that lasted 10:10 and ended just after the fourth quarter began when Deangelo Stevenson ran in his second touchdown of the game from 1 yard out. "We had the ball four plays halfway through the fourth quarter -- you can't beat them (like that)," said Bill Sharpe. "We knew we had to keep their offense off the field and we didn't do a very good job of that." Smith carried the ball 11 times on the drive for 47 yards, but missed a few plays in between as he battled nausea on the sideline. "I was getting nervous," Smith said, before adding, "I was sick the whole week, but I still came out and did the best I could." After the touchdown, Harding coach Sherwood Haydock wanted Jacob Spencer to squib the kickoff, but Spencer unintentionally hit a perfect on-side kick that the Hawks recovered. "I wish I could take credit for that," Haydock laughed. "(Spencer) went to squib it and he missed it, and it ended up going 10 yards. "I'd love to say I had the guts to call that, but I didn't." The Hawks ended any doubt about the outcome with two long touchdown passes from quarterback Devin Dominguez to Marquelo Suel. Suel finished with 149 receiving yards and scored on passes of 42 and 44 yards. "They're just so fast," Byers said. "We've never played a team that fast. You can't simulate it in practice." Dominguez guided the Harding no-huddle offense into Jimtown territory on its first four possessions of the game, but an interception and a fumble stopped the Hawks more than Jimtown's defense. Stevenson's one-yard touchdown run accounted for the only points through the first two quarters. Harding out-gained Jimtown 420-144 and ran 20 more offensive plays. Dominguez finished with 238 yards passing. Jimtown's Tony Byers threw for 112 yards, and Ryan Konrath rushed for 36. At Knepp Field FW Harding 0 7 0 21 -- 28 Jimtown 0 0 0 0 -- 0 H -- Deangelo Stevenson 1 run (Jacob Spencer kick) H -- Stevenson 1 run (Spencer kick) H -- Marquelo Suel 42 pass from Devin Dominguez (Spencer kick) H -- Suel 44 pass from Dominguez (Spencer kick) Hard. Jim. First Downs 19 6 Yards rushing 182 32 Yards passing 238 112 Passing 12-14-1 7-15-0 Punting 1-33 3-40 Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1 Penalties-yards 3-25 0-0